Video games may include player characters (PC), non-player characters (NPC), and other virtual entities. The video games can allow players to control the PCs. Generally, players may not control the NPCs, although the PCs may interact with some of the NPCs (such as a trader for equipment). The video games can also provide background characters such as vegetation, vehicles, animals, humans, or other virtual entities in the background. Background characters can appear lifeless and unnatural within a game environment. Background characters may be three-dimensional (3D) or two-dimensional (2D). Generating 3D characters individually for a large group of characters can consume a lot of computing resources and may cause the video game to slow down. As a result, the video games may not dedicate resources to render 3D background characters, and may render the background characters in 2D instead.